Riniken to UK Cycle Tour Diary

8^th – 27^th June 2012

Some abbreviations:

Friday, 8^th June

It was a very wet start to the tour. It was raining when we got up, but we managed to start off in a dry spell to get over the Bözberg. But it was raining again before we got to Frick, so we stopped there for a snack lunch.

It then rained off and on all the way to Basel, especially during a coffee and cake stop in Rheinfelden. In Basel we stopped at Veloplus for a new mirror for David's bicycle. Then it was off into France to get to the booked hotel in Wittersdorf.

The weather improved tremendously, but so did the hills until we reached Folgensburg. The traffic was also unpleasant. However, at Folgensburg we turned off onto the D16, and it was a lovely ride through beautiful scenery all the way to Wittersdorf. The Hotel-Restaurant Kuentz was very comfortable with good, if rather expensive, food.

Saturday, 9^th June

The weather was very pleasant today, but we had a head-wind most of the way. It was tough going getting to Belfort, especially since we were on a busy main road at first, and it was quite hilly. Fortunately, after about an hour, we saw that we were near a canal and switched to the canal tow-path, and then onto country roads more or less as far as Belfort.

There was a big market in Belfort, which caused us to come out of the town on the wrong road. Eventually, we found the right one. Again, it was busy, hilly, and with a head wind. We bought pâté for a picnic, and eventually found a sheltered spot. After that, we were onto a print-out of a Google-map for guidance, due to a missing bit on our 1:200'000 scale map of France. It worked out well.

We got off the main road at Ronchamp; the hills became more moderate, the wind too, so we made good, gentle progress to Luxeuil-les-Bains, where we found an adequate room for the night in the Lion Vert.

Sunday, 10^th June

We intended this to be a rest day, stopping in Darney after 50 km. Unfortunately, there was no hotel in Darney, so we had to continue another 20 km to Vittel, where we could only find one, the Hotel Mercure, and it's got 4 stars. Beggars can't be choosers.

Actually, it was quite a gentle day. The weather was fine with not much wind, and the hills were moderate too. There was also very little traffic.

Bains-les-Bains looked very pretty, as does the countryside everywhere around here. Some of the villages and small towns seem to be suffering from the recession, though. There are lots of dilapidated buildings and houses for sale.

As a point of interest, we crossed the Mediterranean/North Sea watershed today, just before reaching Vittel. So it should be all downhill from here!

Monday, 11^th June

The weather forecast on the TV was miserable for today - presumably the rain that stopped the French Open tennis in Paris yesterday. It turned out to be much better than expected, but the wind was a nuisance. It only really rained once, and not for very long.

Last night's hotel was 4-star with a price to match, so we decided to do our own breakfast. The hotel's cost EUR 13.50 per person! As a result of it also being Sunday/Monday with shops shut or opening late, we set off hoping to find a café for something to pad out our egg sandwich and cup of tea.

Unfortunately, we were bypassing Neufchâteau on side roads to avoid probably having to cope with heavy traffic, and the villages had neither open shops nor cafés. Eventually we had to stop for a "Snickers", just as the heavens finally decided to open. Up until this point, some 30 km, the going was easy with the wind more or less with us. Finally, on reaching the main road from Neufchâteau northwards at Coussey, we found a restaurant, and had a delicious, cheap lunch.

We then ran through Domrémy, the birthplace of Joan of Arc, where we turned off in a NW direction towards Bar-le-Duc, and the going suddenly got really tough. There were steep hills and a high, wind-exposed plateau for the 16 km to Gondrecourt, where we wanted to find a hotel. The only one was full, but the patron directed us to a hostel (gîte) 6 km further on in Demange-aux-Eaux.

We stocked up with food in a supermarket before setting off to find it, and it turned out really well. It took some finding, despite the minute size of the village. We have an old converted house all to ourselves for the night. It's called Les Gîtes des Bords d'Ornain and is run by Henry Dupuis.

Tuesday, 12^th June

The gîte was really nice. And our self-service breakfast of bread, butter, pâté and boiled egg wasn't bad either, if a bit small. The cycling was wet and hard work, even though the hills were modest and the wind light. I mustn't have slept very well.

The countryside, although very countryfied and green, has become rather monotonous (big fields of rape), but the weather is really not helping.

We stopped in Ligny for a big coffee, which helped; and we then had 10 to 15 km on a canal tow-path to Bar-le-Duc, which made a superb change to 40-ton trucks lumbering past. We had a break from the rain over lunch in Bar-le-Duc before braving the weather again.

The plan was to start looking for a hotel on reaching Nettancourt. As it happened, there was a hotel, if rather run-down, in Nettancourt village. Since it was pouring down again, we decided to stay here anyway. It's called the Cloche d'Or. Now we just have to pass the time till supper-time and bed.

Wednesday, 13^th June

Last night's meal at the hotel was not good. Kari had a huge piece of meat that was supposed to be a lamb gigot, but was mainly gristle. I had a steak which was also rather tough.

This morning it was grey, grey, cold and wet. We had a slight mishap at first on taking the wrong road out of the village, but we discovered it soon enough with the help of the compass, and were able to cut cross-country on a forest track to the right road. The detour only cost us about 2 km.

It was then simply a question of hacking away at the km along the main road to Vouziers, stopping in Sainte Menehould for coffee and cake. All morning we had blanket cloud and drizzle or rain. The scenery was an agricultural plateau - cereals as far as the eye could see.

There were no other cafés apart from the one in Sainte Menehould, so we eventually found shelter in Monthois for a brew-up and sandwich, before hacking away the remaining 10 km to Vouziers, our goal for the day, in yet more drizzle. We managed to find a comfortable, warm motel, thank goodness, the Hotel Argonne.

I had a bout of diarrhoea in the night, which has put a bit of a damper on things.

Thursday, 14^th June

Fortunately, my digestion seemed to sort itself out over night, so we were able to continue as planned. I had found a telephone number of a hotel in Rocroi the previous night, and reserved a room. So, although we were expecting to have to do 75 km or so, we didn't feel any pressure. The weather has finally turned pleasant (~20°C in the afternoon) and the wind has dropped and changed to the SE, so the going was much more pleasant.

The route to take from Vouziers to Rocroi is not obvious from the map. We chose side roads, which meant a steep climb after crossing the River Aisne at Voncq. We then thought that we'd take a short cut along a dirt road between Semuy and Day. It turned into a disaster. We got stuck in mud, and it took us over an hour to get the bicycles functioning again after we had got them out. However, the route from there to Poix-Terron was good going, and we found a good restaurant for lunch.

Afterwards, though, we found that Kari's bike had a flat front tyre to add to her leaking back tyre. We fitted the spare inner tube and headed cross-country again through Thin-le-Meutier to reach the main road north to Rocroi. There followed a steady stream of 40-ton trucks and an endless hill before we finally reached Rocroi and the reserved Hotel du Commerce. In retrospect, it was a tougher day than expected. Tomorrow should see us in Belgium.

Friday, 15^th June

We had planned to have a rest day after the exertions of yesterday - just 50 km to Beaumont. There was, however, no accommodation in Beaumont, so we had to go on another 12 km to a B&B in Hantes Wihéries. And that, plus a few km searching Chimay for a bike shop gave us a total of 67 km for the day. That's how it goes.

In addition, it poured down all morning, and Kari had another puncture, this time in her back tyre. It was the valve seat again. I think that I must learn to be more gentle when blowing up tyres with my tiny bicycle-pump. Before the next tour, I must also remember to check the puncture repair kit more carefully. We found that the tube of glue in the kit had dried up.

Whilst sheltering from the rain in a small bus shelter, I changed Kari's back inner tube for the one with a slow leak, which I had taken out of the front tyre yesterday. It was a filthy job with all the mud still on the bike from yesterday's adventure, and all the morning's rain. However, it got us to Chimay, pumping it up only a couple of times on the way. On the way into the town we found a car-wash to wash the bicycles. It was nice to have reasonably clean bikes again.

The town was a complete mess of road works but, after a nice lunch, we eventually found a bike shop, bought 2 inner tubes and a new repair kit, fitted one of the tubes, and found a restaurant in the town for lunch - almost Swiss prices.

We found a back-road out of the town, not too hilly, to get to Beaumont via Froidchapelle. It had stopped raining, so it was very pleasant.

Beaumont is on the main N40 road. It was absolutely mad with traffic, including 40-ton trucks. The lady in the Tourist Office was very helpful. She phoned a B&B in Hantes Wihéries for us, so we just had a 12 km stretch of heavy traffic to survive to get there. The B&B, Manon de la Source is a beautiful house with huge garden and big rooms. We had a picnic in the garden for our evening meal, but it unfortunately started to rain as we were enjoying it.

Saturday, 16^th June

The breakfast was as beautiful as the house, but then the price of EUR 100 also matched our expectations.

We started off by retracing our steps for about 2 km uphill back to the Beaumont-Mons main road, and then hacked away at the 27 km of heavy traffic as far as Mons. Fortunately it was weekend, so there were not that many trucks.

From Beaumont onwards we have no good maps, just a 1:500'000 scale map of France, and print-outs from Google. As far as Mons, there was no choice but to follow the main road; but from Mons onwards I had a print-out of the Google pedestrian route to Zeebrugge, and it has turned out to be fantastic, at least so far. We have been threading our way from village to village on side roads - very nice. We've had a favourable wind all day, no rain, and not very significant hills. Just how cycling should be.

Coming out of Mons, we found a confisserie where we had waffles with chocolate sauce, and in Lessines we found a chip shop where we had chips and lemonade. The only tough part of the day was to find accommodation on reaching Brakel. We were sent off our route on a wild goose chase of some 8 km to a B&B which no longer existed. Eventually, with the guidance of a very helpful local resident, we found Johan's Lodge in Zwalm, almost back on our Google route again. It's very pleasant, in a simple but spacious way, with a large garden. But there's no TV, so we won't get distracted by the Euro'12 football tonight.

Sunday, 17^th June

Today the cycling was generally easy. The weather was fine, the wind tended to be behind us, and there were no significant hills. There was also no pressure to find accommodation, since the plan was to sleep on the ferry to Hull this evening.

Our only problem was not having a proper map. The Google print-out is very good, as far as it goes, but is based mainly on street names, which are not always to be found at critical junctions. We probably cycled 10 km more than necessary as a result hunting for the right roads.

The countryside is very pleasant, much more opulent than France. There are beautiful villages, all of which tend to blur into each other after a day's cycling. The general impression is very positive, if rather expensive for the traveller - almost Swiss prices.

We found a good café for a coffee, and an excellent chip shop for lunch. And the ferry, once we finally managed to reach Zeebrugge (the signposted cycle route is rather complicated by the main roads, which would appear to have taken precedence), had space for us. So we're in England tomorrow.

Brugge, by the way, is worth a visit; probably more so outside the tourist season. It was packed.

Monday, 18^th June

Despite the 76 km cycled, we don't seem to have made much progress today. It started off badly. The ferry's ramp stuck, so we were all waiting on the car-deck with all the cars for 45 minutes until the ramp could be lowered by hand. The passport check was also ridiculously slow. At least the weather was fine, although it had rained recently.

Once on our way, we stopped at a café for breakfast. We then had the trouble of threading our way through the centre of Hull. Eventually we picked up the Trans-Pennine Trail (TPT), but our troubles were still not over. The route winds around in such a convoluted manner to avoid main roads that it is a) hard to follow, and b) hard to make progress west. It did improve with time as we left Hull behind, and the scenery was all gloriously beautiful, but we soon buried our hopes of reaching Wakefield for the night, and settled for Selby. I wonder how far we'll get tomorrow. We've just had a huge Indian meal, so we may be slowed down by our digestion too.

The librarian in Selby helped us to find a very nice B&B in the town, the Hazeldene Guest House.

Tuesday, 19^th June

The day started with the excitement of seeing the Olympic Torch carried through Selby on its way to London. There were huge crowds and a fantastic party atmosphere - something really quite extraordinary, especially at 9 o'clock in the morning.

Then it was a case of loading up the bikes and setting off to regain the TPT to, this time, head mainly south to Doncaster before heading west again. The weather was again perfect, mainly sunny with cloudy spells, but with a slight head wind.

The TPT is really very scenic but it is hard to make progress. It winds around, the surface is often rough, and one is forever having to squeeze through narrow gates, or avoid speed-reducing obstacles. After a while, I find it rather frustrating, despite the lovely scenery and the traffic-free route.

As a result, we left the trail a few km before Doncaster at Braithwaite to find our own way through Barnby Dun, Doncaster and Warmsworth. We found a nice park in N. Doncaster for a picnic lunch which we had bought in Snaith.

The variation helped us to make progress, but regaining the Trail just beyond Warmsworth was a bit adventurous. We had to slither down a muddy bridle track to get onto a disused railway over a viaduct over the River Don.

The route from there to the RSPB centre in Old Moor was unsurfaced and quite soft and muddy in places. Soon afterwards we left the trail again to get into Barnsley along normal roads, where we thought that there might be a better chance of finding a B&B. It worked out perfectly as we found the Old Coach House Guest House on our way into town. We took a bus into town for the evening and had a very good buffet Chinese meal.

Wednesday, 20^th June

We've had nice weather again, but rain is forecast for tomorrow. The guest house was a treat, and the owner very friendly giving us a good breakfast.

After giving the bike a check-over and some oil, we set off to return to the TPT. We picked a route along roads to Dodworth Bottom from an A-Z guide of Barnsley, which was in the guest house. Unfortunately, the guide had no contours. The route turned out to be very strenuous.

Once on the Trail, however, it was quite easy going, if still a bit soft in places. However, at Silkstone Common, we had to go "up and over" to get past some closed tunnels. It was extremely strenuous, so we stayed on the road from Oxspring to Penistone, where we had a disappointing bacon sandwich.

From there, the disused railway track to Dunford Bridge was steadily but gently uphill, again somewhat soft, but with beautiful orchids along the way. The climb from Dunford Bridge to the Trail's highest point of 435 m at Woodhead Pass, although starting off steeply, was not too bad. By this time, we were well and truly into moorland and dry-stone-wall country.

Soon after the top, we joined the A628 trans-pennine main road, which we chose to follow in order to be able to enjoy the descent all the way down to the Longendale reservoirs. We could see that the TPT for this stretch would be very steep and unpleasantly bumpy. Once the road flattened out we regained the TPT, but abandoned it again as impractical at Broadbottom to follow the A560 into Stockport.

Here the day went rather sour as all hotels in the area were booked out. It took us a further 12 km and countless enquiries to find a room in the Landsdowne Hotel in Fallowfield, a suburb of Manchester. By the time that we found it, we were ready to take anything available. We had a simple pub meal to finish off with, though finding a pub that was still serving food was also non-trivial.

Thursday, 21^st June

It was too wet today to make notes on times and distances. It was also too dreary for photos. I think that the only photo that I took was of Runcorn Bridge as we went under it.

Again, the gates and obstacles on the TPT got to be tedious, so we spent a lot of time on the roads. The going was generally easy, just rather wet. We also got quite mixed up getting through Liverpool with an inadequate map. We ended up all right in the end in the Park House Guest House, a B&B run by Augustine nuns! It is really rather grand.

Friday, 22^nd June

The plan was to nip up to Southport today to visit Irene (David's aunt), and then to come back and carry on to Chester. The weather upset these plans. When we set off it was blowing a gale to rival the one that we experienced on the New Zealand Central Rail Trail, and bucketing down like we experienced when crossing the Haast Pass in New Zealand.

We tried the coastal path but it was totally impractical, so we came inland again and hacked it up the main road. We were soaked by the time that we reached Irene's, but dried out over coffee and lunch.

We decided, however, that getting to Chester in the present weather was out of the question. We decided to return to the Park House Guest House in Waterloo and try getting to Chester tomorrow.

It was still wild on the return journey, but we were somewhat more "goal oriented" and so didn't end up quite as cold and wet when we got there.

After showering and changing, we had a fight against the storm to get to the sea front again to see the "Another Place" sculptures of Antony Gormley. Quite extraordinary. Then we had a mediocre Chinese meal before returning to the B&B.

Saturday, 23^rd June

It was dry when we got up, and stayed dry all the way into the centre of Liverpool where we visited the Walker Art Gallery. I wanted to show Kari "The Liverpool Cityscape" by Ben Johnson, which I had seen a few years ago with Jean and George. It has been moved to the new Liverpool Museum, located between the Liver Building and the Albert Docks. So we cycled there next. I must say that I found the painting in its new location far less impressive than when it was in the Walker Gallery.

From the museum it was a mere stone's throw to the Pier Head and the ferry across the Mersey to Birkenhead. The ferry was not running - it had just broken down! On talking to one of the staff, it transpired that the ferry was just about to limp across the river to Seacombe, not far from Birkenhead, to be checked over. He let us onto the ferry to limp over with it. This was very generous of him, and very lucky for us. Otherwise we would have had to struggle to get across the river by train.

From there we followed a cycle trail towards Eastham Ferry, but eventually ended up on the A41 for the same reasons which had now and again driven us off the TPT. We had a pork-pie snack in Eastham village just before the heavens opened. It stopped before we reached Chester though, so we got to Chester in the dry along the canal tow-path from Backford - very pleasant.

Now we just have to fathom out how to get back to Riniken.

4 Days later, Wednesday, 27^th June

After much deliberation and soul-searching, we finally decided to fly home rather than taking the train to Hull and ferry to Rotterdam. The hassle of getting the bikes onto a plane is enormous, but one must only do it once. I think that we were both a little road weary after all the bad weather, and couldn't face the extended uncertainties of doing the journey by train.

We left Chester by train and reached Manchester without problem with a single change at Crewe. The trains were empty, so we had no problem to get the bikes on too.

We started at the airport to try to find packing boxes for the bikes, without luck. So we then went to the taxi rank to get a quote for a minibus to bring us back from a bike shop in Wilmslow, a few km from the airport, which I had found on the Internet, and had phoned to check that they could let us have 2 bike boxes. We then cycled to the bike shop.

As usual, the boxes seemed to be incredibly small for our bikes. However, we had a roll of duct tape with us and, after quite a struggle and lots of sticking on of extra bits of cardboard, we had the bikes in their boxes. We called the minibus to come and pick us up - it was only just big enough to get us in - and take us back to the airport.

Once we had checked-in, it was simply a question of sitting around and waiting for the flight. The bikes arrived in Zurich safe and sound, and we just about had time to unpack them and put them together again in time for the last train to Brugg, and home.

The End